Almost There
by l.w.boxes
Summary: En route to Florida to visit Tyler's dad the fab four's plane crashes. UPDATED
1. Keep Your Feet on the Ground

A/N: Thanks for beta-reading Arcadia!!!! If any of you have ever read the book Flight 116 is Down! by Caroline B. Cooney this fic is a lot like that. (probably cuz' that's where I got the idea after reading that book a couple months ago. The idea's been bouncing around in my head ever since so I finally just had to write it)   
  
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"Whose idea was this stupid trip anyway?"  
  
They all turned to look at Tyler who shrugged his shoulders.  
  
" I'm not forcing you all to come with me," he said, "I just actually thought you all would enjoy a week of R and R in the Florida sun."  
  
"Okay we get the point," Caitie sighed, crossing her arms.  
  
"Yeah Ty, it's not that we're ungrateful," Jamie said, "It's just that I thought we'd actually be flying there not just sitting in the plane and pretending."  
  
"Hey," Tyler said, getting defensive, "It's not my fault they decided to make us all get on the plane and then wait for two hours while they fixed the," he held up his fingers in quotes, "minor engine problems."  
  
"But," Caitie continued, "it is your fault you convinced us all to come with you so you wouldn't have to visit your dad alone."  
  
"Caitie!" Val put in, "Be nice."  
  
Tyler shifted in his seat. "I haven't seen him in a while and it'd be uncomfortable."  
More like impossible, he thought to himself.  
  
"Yea well I'm getting pretty uncomfortable myself, after sitting on this plane for two hours!" Jamie said, raising his voice, causing several passengers to turn and stare.   
  
Suddenly, a mechanical voice came over the intercom, "Welcome to W.G.C. Airlines. (A/N: W.G.C.=We're Gonna Crash. lol) We apologize for the delay. Please fasten your seat belts as we will be taking off shortly."  
  
There was a mixture of applause as everyone reached for their seat buckles.  
  
Finally, the plane began its ascent.  
  
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"I hate flying," Val complained, after her ears popped for the tenth time.  
  
"You'll get used to it," Tyler assured her.  
  
Val highly doubted she could ever get used to overly salty peanuts.   
  
Deciding to change the subject, she said, "You're probably nervous about going to see your dad."  
  
"Yea."  
  
Val sighed, she'd been hoping for more than a one-word answer.  
  
"You haven't seen him in a while?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
Come on Tyler! Val urged him mentally. She was beginning to think Caitie and Jamie had had the right idea as she glanced across the aisle over at them sleeping peacefully.  
  
Looking past Jamie, out the window she saw the wing of the plane as it sliced through the clouds. For some reason this image made her feel tired. She turned around to Tyler she was going to sleep only to find that he'd beaten her to it.  
  
Sighing contentedly, Val closed her eyes. Seconds later though they were jerked back open as the plane began rapidly approaching the ground.  
  
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Jamie was awake before the plane had lost more than a foot in altitude.  
  
People began to scream and for a second he didn't even realize what was happening. And then someone in the back yelled, "We're gonna crash!" and it hit him.  
  
Racking his brain he tried to remember what the flight attendant had said about crash landings. He quickly fastened his seat belt and leaned forward.  
  
It wasn't until then that he saw Caitie, just waking up and not knowing what was going on.  
  
He reached for her, grabbed her shoulder and shoved her head towards her knees.  
  
"Jamie, no, I have to..."Caitie stammered trying to sit back up.  
  
Jamie couldn't hear her with all the yelling, so he just tried to keep her head down.  
  
She'd been trying to tell him she didn't have her seatbelt on.   
  
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Crashing.  
  
The word echoed through Tyler's mind over and over until he didn't think he could stand it.  
  
Val had woken him up just a few minutes ago, although it seemed like hours as the aircraft plummeted toward the earth.  
  
Suddenly, an explosion ripped through the plane causing windows and light bulbs alike to shatter and rain glass on the terrified passengers. High-pitched screams followed.  
  
Tyler could hear Val screaming in the seat next to him and he reached out, taking her hand in his.  
  
A second explosion, larger than the first, made the whole plane shake.  
  
What happened next was the most frightening thing any of them had ever experienced. The plane began to creak and groan, getting louder and louder, until cracks began to appear in the walls.  
  
It seemed to Tyler that he only blinked and the row of seats in front of him disappeared. The plane had broken in half, opening up the four teens to the unforgiving wreckage below.  
  
Tyler closed his eyes. He didn't want to see when they collided. At the same time he squeezed Val's hand even tighter.  
  
And then... they hit.  
  
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That's all for now! Should I continue???? REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!!!!!!!No flames, I don't have a fire extinguisher handy.(That was really corny!!!) :P  
Oh yeah, for those who don't know revisión (in the summary) means REVIEW!!!!!!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Awaking

A/N: Here's the next chapter!!!!!!! Yay!!!!! Thanks to Arcadia for Beta-Reading!!!!!! Your awesome!!!!!!! The first part's pretty depressing. Just warning you. Sooooooo.... Enjoy!!!!!!!  
  
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And then...they hit.  
  
The front half of the plane landed first in a massive heap of compacted metal.  
  
The second half followed its path exactly crashing onto, rather than into, it's processor.   
  
Immediately after there was silence, only to be broken by the cry of a baby.  
  
Other children seemed to follow the firsts example, their yells and wails rising above the softer moans of the injured.  
  
But worst of all were the screams of the dying.   
  
Their shouts seemed to pierce the air and fill it with their pain and suffering. These were only to be silenced, not by bandages and comfort, but when death overtook them.  
  
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Val awoke slowly, as if her unconscious knew what she would have to face when she did wake.   
  
She took a mental inventory of her body. Nothing seemed to be broken. She began testing each joint and it was then that she realized her fingers were still intertwined with Tyler's. Smiling lightly at the thought, she carefully pulled her hand away.  
  
Turning in her seat she tried to see if Tyler was hurt. It was so dark! Didn't they have emergency lights or something? But, then she remembered how all of the lights had shattered during the crash. It wasn't like they would work anyway in this wreck.  
  
"Tyler," she whispered, leaning close to him. When that received no reaction, she reached out blindly for him.  
  
She ran her fingers along his jaw, checking for injuries.   
  
It was on Tyler's forehead that she discovered what she had been searching for but not wanting to find.  
  
A large gash covered most of the left side of his forehead.   
  
Her EMT skills kicking in she decided he must have a concussion and shouldn't be moved. If only she had some bandages to slow the bleeding.  
  
Shrugging out of her jacket, she rolled it into a ball, leaving the sleeves out. (A/N: do you get that?) She was about to tie it around his head (yea, I know it would look really stupid) when the whole plane shifted, sending Val to the floor.  
  
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Hell.  
  
That's where Jamie decided he must be.  
  
He'd died and gone to hell.  
  
He knew it wasn't true but that's how he felt sitting in the cold, empty darkness. He wasn't in his seat anymore; he knew that for sure. He'd tried to stand up numerous times but had never succeeded.  
He considered the fact that he might be paralyzed, but dismissed it after finding he could still move his ankles and toes. If only he could see where he was!   
  
His mind was so fogged he couldn't even think straight to call for help. It seemed, to him, the only option was to sit and wait for help to come to him.   
  
He tried not to think of the fact that he couldn't move, assuring himself that he, and his friends, would be fine. He couldn't even feel any pain.  
  
Yet.  
  
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Val stood shakily, reaching out in front of her and only finding metal.  
  
Cold, hard metal.   
  
Like a wall blocking her way.  
  
She could hear people yelling on the other side, much as they were in this half of the plane.  
  
Leaving Tyler where he was, she headed across the aisle towards Caitie's seat.  
  
Val had to hold on to her seat to keep from falling as a second jolt shook the plane.  
  
Moving from Tyler's seat out into the aisle she found that the wall, that was the other half of the plane, sloped towards her making her path smaller and smaller until it closed it off completely. The plane wall curved all the way in to meet Caitie's seat.  
  
Caitie's empty seat.  
  
Maybe she just fell on the floor, Val thought. She dropped to her knees to search even though she knew this was impossible without Caitie being trapped under the fold of plane. Caitie wasn't there anyway.   
  
Standing back up Val began to climb over Caitie's seat, when she remembered Jamie had been sitting next to her.   
  
She'd been so obsessed with finding Caitie she'd forgotten about Jamie.   
  
Even in the pitch-black darkness she could sense that his seat was also empty.   
  
"No!" She reached out wildly into the empty air. She almost cried when her hand brushed the back of Jamie's head. She hadn't lost both of them after all.   
  
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Jamie could hear someone moving around behind him. Maybe it was Caitie.  
  
He wanted to say something to let her know he was there but he couldn't get his lips to move.  
  
Something was touching the back off his head. Lazily he lifted one arm to push whatever it was away.  
  
Almost immediately he heard the all too familiar voice of Val.   
  
And she was as perky as ever.  
  
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"Jamie!"  
  
Moonlight shone in through a crack in the plane and Val could just barely see the outline of his shape.  
  
He sat on the floor with his back against what had been his seat. He looked as if he'd been dangling his legs over the edge of the plane when it had broken and then they'd crashed into the first half of the plane trapping his legs below the knee.   
  
Val cringed at the sight. She leaned closer to him so he could hear her.  
  
"How do you feel?" she asked.  
  
Ignoring her, he asked the question that had been on his mind for sometime now, "Where's Caitie?"  
  
Val swallowed. She'd been wondering the same thing.  
  
Where was Caitie?  
  
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That's it for now. The first chapter was a whole lot better than this. It focused mostly on Val and Jamie so next chapter I'll have more of the other characters and......Caitie!!!! Yay!!!! Where is she? Even I don't know yet. Hahaha. Thanks soooo much for all the reviews and keep them comin'!!!!!!!! Mucho amor!!!!!!!!   
-crzychica   
  
  



	3. The Beginning will Lead to the End

A/N: Here's chapter 3! Hold the applause please. Thanks to Arcadia for helping me sooooo much. You're so great at the whole beta-reading thing. hehehe...Aricraze, thanks for helping! Gracias a tú ambos. What else? Nothing. Nothing else? Nope. Well okay then. Okay. Shut up and let them read the fricken' story! Ok...ok...jeez! hehehe...  
  
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Where was Caitie?  
  
  
Caitie was flying.  
  
She was soaring above the trees and over the water. It felt so good to be free that it didn't really matter where she went.  
  
Someone was with her.   
  
Someone was talking to her and shaking her.  
  
She wished they would go away, they sounded so scared and she was so happy.  
  
Happy to be alive.   
  
Happy to be alive? Why would she think something like that?  
  
And then it all came rushing back to her like a tidal wave crashing onto the shore.  
  
"Open your eyes!"  
  
Who was talking to her? Why wouldn't they just go away and let her sleep?  
  
"Please wake up!"  
  
Wait a minute, this was a guy's voice. Maybe it was Jamie.  
  
Mentally sighing, she realized she'd just have to open her eyes and find out.  
  
And so, using tremendous strength, Caitlin Roth awoke to the nightmare of reality.  
  
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Aaron Connel paced back and forth over the carpeted floor in the Florida airport.  
  
His son's plane was supposed to have arrived an hour ago. He knew an hour wasn't a lot for a plane to be delayed, but it still worried him. What if something had happened?  
  
As if confirming his worst fear, a representative of W.G.C. airlines approached the gate.  
  
Holding up her hands, to gain everyone's attention and quiet them, she cleared her throat.  
  
"Will the families of the passengers of flight 287 please follow me." She began leading the way down an empty hallway ending in what looked to be a large conference room.  
  
Aaron tried to reassure himself that everything was fine, but deep in his heart he knew the truth. Everything was not fine. Far from it.  
  
Other people obviously knew it too from the looks on their faces. Some were already beginning to cry.  
  
Once in the conference room the airline officials urged everyone to sit down, although no one did.  
  
Aaron stood, dumbfounded and numb with shock, only hearing bits and pieces of the what the representatives were saying.  
  
"Sorry...inform...has...crashed...somewhere...Georgia."  
  
This was something you read about happening to other people. Something that made a good plot for a story.  
  
"no...details...emergency...traveling...more....future"  
  
This was not something that happened to your own family. Not my son.  
  
Shakily, he approached a man in an airline uniform.   
  
Tapping him on the shoulder he asked, "Do you know any thing about my son? His name..."  
  
The airline rep interrupted before he could finish, "I'm sorry, we don't have any details of that sort at this time."  
  
Aaron's hands shook as he pulled the list of Tyler's friend's names out of his pocket. Reading over it he realized that all these kids had families.   
  
"What about these kids?" he asked, shoving the list into the representative's hands.  
  
He didn't even look at it before handing it back to Mr. Connel.  
  
"I'm sorry sir, you'll just have to wait until we receive more information."  
  
Aaron watched as the man walked away. Shoving the list back into his pocket he headed out the door to the nearest pay phone.  
  
His hands still shaking, he put in a quarter and dialed his ex-wives number.  
  
"Hello...Carol...I have something to tell you."  
  
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A...F...W...O...R.  
  
Hank stared at the letter-shaped noodles floating in his chicken soup.  
  
He didn't feel like eating. He hadn't felt like eating for days.  
  
It wasn't the flu that was ailing him now though.  
  
It was worry. Worry and anger that was making him sicker than any virus had.  
  
The phone had rang twenty minutes ago.  
  
It'd been Tyler's mom calling with "some bad news".  
  
Why did adults always try to sugar coat everything?  
  
What if he had been on that plane? He hadn't though. He was supposed to go but he'd gotten sick the day before they were supposed to leave.   
  
Who'd of thought someone could ever be so happy to be sick?   
  
Hank wasn't happy though.   
  
What if his friends were dead?   
  
All of his friends had been on that plane.   
  
No.   
  
Not all of them.   
  
Just all of his closest and best friends, and in a way, that was worse.  
  
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"Mommy, mommy wake up!"  
  
A young girl, no more than four, sat hunched over crying into her mother's sleeve.  
  
Tyler froze, trying to locate the voice.  
  
He'd woken just moments before, to find Val's jacket in his lap, covered with blood. The realization that she was hurt hit him and he'd immediately set out to find her.   
  
Meanwhile, trying to ignore the aching in his head and what seemed to be the beginning of a stomachache.  
  
Halfway down the aisle though, he'd been sidetracked by this girl's plea for help.  
  
He kneeled in front of her as she continued to sob.  
  
"Hey," he said softly, "What's wrong?"  
  
He'd never been very good with kids.  
  
She began to rock back and forth, faster and faster, until she fell off the seat and into Tyler's arms.  
  
"Mommy..."  
  
Tyler's gaze turned to the woman in the next seat over. She appeared to be asleep.  
  
"Is this your mom?"  
  
The girl nodded into his shoulder, her torrent of tears never slowing.  
  
"What's your name?" he asked, shifting her onto his hip.  
  
"Anna."  
  
"Well Anna, I'm sure your mom will be fine," he assured her, reaching for the woman's wrist to check for a pulse.  
  
There was none.  
  
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Well, it didn't exactly answer the burning question of where Caitie was, but it did help some. Didn't it? Hehehe. GIVE ME FEEDBACK! I AM THE REVIEW MONSTER! Give me reviews or I die! Then...no more story. Hehehe...Constructive criticism is appreciated veeeery much. Until chapter 4...   
  



	4. Lost and Found

**IMPORTANT** A/N: What? Four years you say? I've been asleep that long? haha, seriously. I just stumbled across these old files the other day and read over them , and realized hey! I wanted to know what happened next. (And also what a jerk I was for not finishing the story). So I sat down and tried to channel my fourteen year old self, with some success (I hope) and wrote. I'm a little out of practice, my style is quite different now, but hopefully still entertaining. I don't even remember how old the characters were (17, 18?) but I do still love them. They were all so strongly portrayed. Anywho, here it is. A shorter something to see if anyone's still interested. I've got the next (longer) part written so that will be up soon. Scout's honor. :) Picks up right where it left off...

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There was none.

Tyler swallowed hard against the nausea that twisted in his stomach and held Anna closer. He couldn't tell this little girl that her mother was beyond help.

"Was there anyone else on the plane with you Anna?" He asked, knowing he couldn't walk away with her if someone was looking for them. She shook her head, rubbing at her eyes and hiccupping.

"Is mommy okay?" He stared at her, wondering how he could possibly answer her question.

"She's okay. She's just sleeping," he smiled past the lie. "You're going to hang out with me for awhile, okay? My name's Tyler."

"Hi Tyler." She had calmed down now and pressed her face into his neck. He stood up with her, unsteady on his feet, trying to decide what to do when a voice cut through the chaos.

"Tyler!"

It was Val.

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"Are you doing okay, Jamie?"

It was the fourth time in half as many minutes that she had asked.

"I think so." She'd already checked him over for other injuries and was now taking his pulse.

"We need to find Caitie." He could easily imagine the determination on her face, even though he couldn't turn to see her.

"Hang on a minute. I'll get up and go find her."

It was what he truly wanted to do. He cursed his stupid luck of being trapped here. Any other injury wouldn't have held him back from looking for her.

"You must not be hurting too much if you're still joking," Val smiled.

"Oh, it hurts alright." He spoke through clenched teeth now and she could hear the familiar note of strain in his tone.

"I might have some Tylenol in my carry on, if I can find it." He shook his head as she moved to get up.

"Val, don't worry about me. We're EMTs and our goddamn plane just crashed. Go help who you can." He could imagine her behind him, nodding, with a different kind of determination in her eyes now.

"You're right. But I'll come back as soon as I find someone to help. Don't worry Jamie."

He sighed as she moved away. The tingling fire in his legs was growing to an inferno.

………………………………………………………

Caitie sat up fast, and immediately regretted it. The world spun around her, a swirl of trees and night sky, as her head pounded in tune with a pain that ran up her arm into the shoulder.

"Whoa…and ow." She would've fallen back to the dirt had it not been for the support of someone's hands on her back.

"You're okay. That's so great. I was really worried." The same voice that had been calling her to wake before now continued in a nervous babble.

She tuned him out, looking around to find herself in a forest. It was dark but she could see and hear people all around, running and yelling, crying. And in the distance a large white hulking shape.

"What happened?"

The man turned back to her, looking panicky.

"The plane?" He gestured into the trees with a thin arm. "You don't remember the plane?"

Caitie gazed off into the trees.

The plane.

The plane crashing.

A horrible kaleidoscope of memories struck her at once. Jamie. Val. Even Tyler. She attempted to stand, but fell back to the dirt when a sudden pain coursed through her.

"My arm…"

"Is probably broken," the man finished and shrugged. "I didn't know what to do. Are you cold?" He slipped out of his suit jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders as she lay back on the ground.

"Just stay still. I heard sirens before so they must be here by now." He searched the darkness like they might suddenly appear before him, then patted her hand awkwardly.

"You'll be okay."

She doubted that he'd had any friends on board.

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Val moved quickly across the aisle, away from Jamie, to where she had left Tyler.

He wasn't there.

She could see that, her eyes having adjusted to the dark, but she reached out into the seats anyway. Only her jacket remained there, damp with his blood. Where could he have gone, she wondered. She moved down the rest of the row, checking for him in the seats and on the floor, but still finding no one.

"Tyler!"

She called out, scarcely hearing herself over the swelling noise in the cabin.

"Tyler!"

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A/N more: Review if you like. I had some fun laughing at the stupid things I used to do, like AN's in the middle of the chapter. Ugh. I decided I wouldn't go back and change anything though. That's that. If anyone is interested in betaing, email me, cuz that surely would help out lots. I can't plot to save my life. Ah, well. Hope to hear from somebody.


	5. Reunion

Almost There

Chapter 5

"Tyler!"

Val was calling him. She must be okay then. He almost laughed out loud with the relief that thought brought him. He started down the aisle towards her voice, when a strong hand grabbed his elbow.

"Hey!" He adjusted his hold on Anna and turned to find a man, looking desperate and leaning in close to him.

"Please, can you help me?" He gestured to a woman lying in the aisle.

"My wife…Do you know CPR?" Of course he knew CPR, he thought. He handled situations like this everyday, didn't he? Something like this.

He glanced in the direction of Val's voice again before nodding. He set Anna down, and she protested, gripping a handful of his shirt.

"Yea, I can help."

All he had to do was tune Val out.

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Jamie took a deep breath, twisting his head to the side and peering into the darkness. Yes, he told Val to go, but he was regretting his prior bravery now. His legs were tingling madly and painfully up to the knee, where they were truly trapped, and then they caught on fire. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt. Squirming in his seat, he could only imagine comparing the pain to crawling over hot coals or kneeling on the stove. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

EMT training sure wasn't helping him any now. He had no way to help himself, let alone anyone else. Like Caitie, he thought desperately. He sighed loudly.

"Fuck."

And then blinked as a bright spot light bounced off the metal in front of him. Loud voices echoed down the row.

Was this help? Val, he remembered. Val got help.

A flashlight shone in his face, and he turned away blinking.

"How're you doin' there kid?"

Jamie leaned back against the seat and let his head loll towards the uniformed rescuer.

"Man, am I glad to see you."

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Unable to find Tyler, Val had continued down the aisle. She'd bandaged a man's arm with his tie and helped another find his son. Even though she knew she had a duty to help others, she couldn't put the worry for her friends out of her head.

She shuffled back down the row, and checked her watch, surprised at how much time had passed since she left Jamie. She was at the end of the row when she ran into a large man.

He gripped her shoulders.

"Ma'am, are you okay?" He asked, shining a flashlight at her, checking for injuries.

"I'm fine, but my friend is trapped."

"We're taking care of it. You need to get outside. It's not safe in here and we need room to work."

She shrugged out of his grasp.

"No, I can help." The man looked at her doubtfully.

"I'm an EMT." He eyed her for a few seconds more, before reaching into his bag and handing her some tags.

"Okay then, head outside and triage," he grinned. "We need all the help we can get."

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Tyler stumbled out of the plane onto the muddy ground.

"Are you okay Anna?" The little girl had yet to let go of him and was again nestled against his shoulder.

"I'm okay," she replied sleepily.

That made one of them, he thought. He had done CPR for fifteen or twenty minutes before the man's wife had begun to breathe on her own. She'd woken up shortly after that and would be fine, but breathing for her for so long had knocked something loose in his chest. He couldn't put his finger on the pain, but he felt nauseous and dizzy. Anna's weight on him didn't help, but he didn't dare put her down.

One of the emergency workers had told him to head outside and get his sister somewhere safe and he didn't have the energy to argue.

He stood there for a moment, stunned. There must have been hundreds of people there, scattered throughout the trees. More and more paramedics and firemen were arriving and they moved through the woods, their reflective uniforms shining in the dim moonlight.

One in particular caught his eye. She was un-uniformed, triaging people with green, yellow, red, or black tags. She stood up and he caught a glimpse of shining blonde hair.

Val.

He stumbled with the realization and began to jog towards her as quickly as he could.

"Val!"

………………………………………………………………….

Val hated triage. Seriously. She could never justify to herself putting a red tag on a critically injured patient without stopping to actually help them. Especially when she knew that she could.

Unfortunately, it was a job, an important one, which had to be done in situations like this.

She moved on to a thin man in a suit, minus the jacket. He stood staring off at the mass of metal behind them.

"How are you doing sir?" He didn't seem hurt. She took his pulse, which was a little fast, but otherwise strong and steady.

"I- I didn't see it before." She avoided turning to look at the plane, placing a tag around his wrist, with the green portion still attached.

"You're going to be fine." She went to leave him, when he grabbed her hand.

"Wait! I need help."

"Sir, you're going to be fine," she reassured him. "You're just in shock right now." And who wouldn't be, she thought.

He shook his head, seeming to snap out of his haze.

"No, not for me. There's a girl back that way," he gestured into the trees. "She needs help, really. I- I didn't know what to do."

She hated triage. Seriously. People needed help and it wasn't her job to go help them.

"I'm sorry, I can't--"

"Val!" She spun around, forgetting the man for a moment.

That was Tyler's voice.

"Val!" She turned again, frantically searching for him in the chaotic crowd.

And then she saw him, jogging stiffly towards her. She ran the few steps to meet him and threw her arms around his neck, ignoring the sleeping child on his shoulder.

"Oh, you're okay, you're okay," she whispered in his ear.

"I was so scared Val, I couldn't find you."

"I'm okay, I'm okay," she reassured.

"There was blood all over your jacket and--"

"Tyler," she stepped back from him, "That was your blood on my jacket." She eyed the wound on his forehead and the pasty color of his skin. "Are you sure you're okay?"

He nodded and tried to smile past the lump in his throat.

"Fine, now that I found you." She grinned despite her worries, meeting his gaze. She cleared her throat.

"So, uh, who's this?" She gestured to the little girl. "A new girlfriend?"

"This is Anna." He checked again to make sure she was still sleeping. "Her mom…I found her there. She thought she was sleeping."

Val nodded with the realization of what he meant. She'd already dealt with so many people tonight, but she hadn't thought of the personal loss until now. And she was just a little girl.

"Here," she held out her arms to him, "Let me take her. You look like you could use a break."

They traded, the triage tags for Anna, but as Tyler bent to hand the girl over the weight shifted on his chest, and in his chest, and something broke.

He stumbled to his knees, the air rushing out of his lungs audibly. Leaving him empty to gasp and wheeze for another breath.

"Tyler! Oh my god." Val fell to her knees in front of him, moving the now crying Anna out of the way.

She didn't need a stethoscope to recognize the deep rasping sounds coming from his chest.

"Tyler, you need to breathe." She took his hands as he grasped for support, shaking his head frantically.

He knew, as well as she did, what had happened. The nagging pain in his chest had been broken ribs that had eventually torn into his lung. A lung that had now collapsed.

Val looked around, panicky. She didn't have any equipment. She couldn't deal with this. Tyler grasped at her arms, struggling to take a breath, his eyes wide and pleading. While Anna stood between them, a hand on each, yelling.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Val stood, opening her mouth in desperation.

"Help! Somebody! We need help!"

A/N: That was a long part! Expect more of Caitie and Jamie in the next bit. Do ya'll think I need to include more of Hank and the others, or, since we've basically seen there reactions, leave them be? Yea, I know writing is all about making decisions, and I should make them myself, but I really like to hear the opinions of readers. Thanks. ;)

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